Episode 37: 4/29/09

Readings:

Psalm 9
Daniel 4:19-27
1 John 3:19-4:6
Luke 4:14-30

Sermon:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
2 Peter 2:1-3

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Test the Spirits…

Amidst our ranks, amidst our numbers there will always be false prophets, false teachers who take up the word of the Lord, the Gospel of Christ, and use it not as that liberating, binding force that frees us from our captivity to sin and offers us the freedom of the soul that comes through salvation but rather as a means to their own ends. Ambition, self interest, wealth, they guide the steps of those who walk down not a path of righteous but a road of iniquity seeking to manipulate the faithful to follow them for their purposes and their gratification.

In our text today we hear hard, harsh words from Saint Peter as he warns us about such men. Why though? After all, we live in a live and let live society, where we are perpetually taught that we must show understanding to every doctrine, to ever school of thought that is out there, never questioning other peoples belief’s unless they are so egregious that they effect the society as a whole or shock our sensibilities. Tolerance has become our creed, and under its guise we allow so many thoughts and notions effect our theology that, in many places, the Law and the Gospel are chased out of our churches and all we are left with are the shell of what they once were. Either they become reactionary and legalistic fundamentalist bodies or they become progressive political tools used to fit whatever the agenda of the day is.

Faith becomes nothing more than elaborate game of chess, the pieces moving across the board in intricate slides where, in many cases, we have become nothing more than pawns.

This isn’t to say that every church that somehow or someway believes something different than us or that every preacher standing behind his pulpit giving a message we somehow understand differently is a false teacher. A deeply personal experience moved by the power of the Holy Spirit calling us our understanding of faith and scriptures are unique to us based on how God, in love, reveals Himself to us. It is about our own encounters with the Savior and how he teaches us to live our lives. Amidst that there are a host of different beliefs that still abide within the Scriptures. To demand a perfect understanding this side of heaven from any of us is impossible.

No, when we speak of false teachers we speak of those who manipulate and massage the scriptures until they meet their approval, until they meet their own fixed agenda, ripping the heart and the soul out of them for their own means. For them God reserves the judgment of the most wicked of blasphemers against the Spirit, those who cause the weak to stumble and the faithful to falter in their steps.

In our Epistle lesson we hear the words of Saint John as he tells to us that we must test the Spirits. Why? So that we may recognize if it is the Spirit of God or the spirit of man seeking to remake and remold God so that they may masquerade their words as the Word of the Lord.

To test the Spirit understands that though God is everywhere He only chooses to reveal Himself in certain places and in certain ways in our hearts so that we may know the truth and that same truth will set us free. It is there that we know that He reveals Himself where His Word is preached with a purity of the heart and the purity of the soul, seeking to uplift and edify the believer, seeking to nourish their soul.

It is not enough that we should just expect that God will protect us from false teachers and false prophets, we must be on guard against them, coming to Him, asking him for His protection and His guidance. We must come to Him, as a child comes to their father when we wonder, seeking for Him to reveal His wisdom and truth within our hearts and our souls. It is not enough for us to wait for His judgment against false teachers, letting tolerance for their erroneous and self serving message be our guiding call and then, in the final days, saying “Ah ha, I knew that he or she was a false teacher.” We must use the calling of the Spirit to reveal them unto the world that we may prevent our brothers and sisters from falling into their snares, the vigilant soldiers wearing the whole armor of God.

We must remember that these people they serve not God. Rather they serve their own belly, tearing the unity of the church asunder by robbing the believer of the peace and comfort they have in salvation through Christ Jesus. Just as our savior, just as those early prophets, apostles and saints were, we too must stand ready to push back against them and their influence in all that they say and all that they do. Ours must be to be imitators of Christ, and just as he turned the tables in the temple we too must be ready to turn the tide against those who use the house of God and the word of the Lord as their own means of wealth, fortune and success.

Be therefore guided by the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of righteousness, the Spirit of love in the deepest compassion for your fellow man, forever seeking to remove all stones and stumbling blocks from their path that they may walk with certainty down the path of redemption. Be vessels of His divine providence, a helper to the weak brethren who perhaps do not see the challenges ahead and the road wrought with challenges. And, in all things, magnify the grace, and peace, the mercy and the charity of the Lord, showing, when others test the Spirit that you walk in the name of, that you stand with Christ by your side in all that you are and all that you do.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Now may the peace of the Lord, that peace that transcends all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting, Amen.